Aer Lingus will shut its Manchester Airport base from March 31st, the airline confirmed to staff on Wednesday. The Irish airline flies to US cities and Barbados from the British airport, where it employs around 200 pilots and cabin crew.
The company told workers and their unions on Wednesday that it will fully-cease operations from from March 31st.
“Manchester-New York operations will cease from February 23rd 2026 and Aer Lingus plans to operate a service from Dublin to Barbados (subject to receipt of necessary approvals) during the months of April and May to re-accommodate affected customers,” said a statement.
Services between Ireland and Manchester, including Aer Lingus Regional flights, will not be hit, the airline added.
Aer Lingus is telling customers that their flights are cancelled and providing them with re-accommodation or refund options.
The airline pledged to continue talks with workers and unions on the reduction in operations “redeployment opportunities and the terms of a severance package at the Manchester base”.
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Aer Lingus has been consulting with staff since November in a process it warned could end in the base’s closure, although it had not confirmed that this would be the outcome.
Earlier this month it said staff could get the option of redeployment elsewhere within Aer Lingus, or its parent, IAG, which also owns Spain’s Iberia and British Airways, or redundancy.
The Irish carrier began flights from Manchester to New York, Orlando, Florida and Bridgetown, Barbados in 2021.
Recently its chief executive, Lynne Embleton, said that the base was under-performing.
Aer Lingus maintains that the Manchester operation is profitable but the margins are lower than the rest of its business.